Global input and ideas will be on the rise at the 44th Public Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers thanks to ICANN's on-going Fellowship program.
The upcoming meeting scheduled for 24-29 June in Prague, Czech Republic, will signify the 5 year anniversary of the Fellowship Program at ICANN. The Program has shown great success in its mission to build capacity in the ICANN community through focused interactive engagement with selected individuals at each of the ICANN meetings. The program seeks to identify members of the Internet community who either have not previously been able to participate in ICANN processes and constituent organizations, or those who require further exposure to the Internet community and its work but cannot travel and attend a meeting without financial support. Outreach is focused on the less developed regions of the world, in order to help create a broader base of knowledgeable constituents who will become the new voice of experience in their regions and beyond.As a reminder about the process, applications for each meeting are assessed by an independent selection committee, and priority is given to applicants who: meet minimum program requirements; are current residents of developing and least developed nations in the five ICANN regions; and who are interested in participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, advisory committees or stakeholder groups. An effort is made to include more participants from the region that the current meeting is being held in, as long as minimum requirements have been satisfied. Additionally, all confirmed fellowship participants must comply with the terms and conditions of the Fellowship program, as outlined at http://www.icann.org/en/about/participate/fellowships/terms-conditions. As stated within these terms and conditions, ICANN is a California non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the United States and must therefore comply with all the laws and regulations of California and the United States. Fellows are responsible for obtaining all travel visas once accepted into the program. ICANN will only purchase tickets for Fellows after all necessary documentation has been obtained and Fellows demonstrate that they have obtained all necessary travel visas.
Once all of the requirements for travel are met, the Fellowship program arranges for and covers the costs for airfare and hotel, as well as providing a stipend to assist with some meeting costs that will be incurred. The stipend is provided after each selected candidate successfully completes the requirements of the Fellowship program, Recipients will be expected to actively participate in and contribute to ICANN processes during and after the meeting. As always, registration for ICANN's meetings is free for anyone wanting to attend.
For this 16th round of the Fellowship Program, 25 fellows have been selected from 20 countries, chosen amongst the 143 applications received. Seven of the fellows are alumni from at least one of the past 15 programmes; 13 are first-time attendees to any ICANN meeting, 5 individuals have attended past meetings, but are first time fellows. There is representation from all sectors including civil, government, academia, and from business or user groups. Also included in these sectors are representatives of country code supporting groups. You will find this current list of participants at: http://www.icann.org/en/about/participate/fellowships
The 45th ICANN Public Meeting will be held in Toronto, Canada (North America region) from 14-19 October 2012. The online application process for that meeting opens on 23 May 2012 at 19:00 UTC; look to the ICANN homepage for that announcement.
This announcement was sourced from :
http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-06apr12-en.htm
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